rambling on about … my novel writing journey … day twenty three

 

DAY TWENTY THREE - SATURDAY

Words written today – 2,695

Total words written – 50,559

Words remaining – 0

Days remaining – 8

I HAVE FINISHED.  I AM BEREFT.  AS I TYPED THE LAST FEW WORDS – THE ENDING – I FELT A MIXTURE OF RELIEF, EXCITEMENT AND SADNESS – IT IS DONE – NOW I HAVE TO WAIT FOR THE 25TH BEFORE I CAN LOG IN MY WORD COUNT.  PHEW! Below is the ending that I chose.

I could hear Antaeus calling to me in the soft singing-sighing of the wind. I pushed it from my mind, refused to hear it. We went back inside the hut on the beach, and I saw the letter from my father propped up against a jam jar of dead flowers on the table.

Jed asked me if I was going to read it, I said no, I knew what it said – I think I had all along. I knew my father believed that Aedre was my mother, she may well have been, but she wasn’t the woman that he believed she was. Somehow, in his befuddled, crazy mind he had believed it, wanted to believe it. He had spent the whole of his life believing it, waiting for her return, and in the end when he couldn’t take any more of the desperate waiting, he had walked into the sea in search of her. I hoped he could find peace now, wherever he was.

I asked Jed to fetch the petrol can from the ‘beast’ he looked at me for a second, then fetched it, he knew what I was going to do, something I should have done a long time ago.

I stood in the doorway and took one last look at my childhood home. There was evil here, disguised as love, and I wouldn’t let it take any more people, especially not me. Not now; now that I had found what I had been looking for all along; the love of a good man and a child of my own.

I lit a match and threw it on to the rug where the petrol can lay on its side. As the flames grew and devoured the hut I turned and walked away. Let it burn and be done with it. I had a life to live. I smiled at Jed and JP. ‘Come on - let’s go home.’

THE END